BLUE MOON BREWING COMPANY PARTNERS WITH JOHALLA PROJECTS TO “RAISE A MOON” IN BROOKLYN, NY

MARCH 1, 2014 6-10PM EST

BROOKLYN, NY (February 27, 2014) – On March 1, Blue Moon Brewing Company will collaborate with artist collective Johalla Projects to artfully redefine the Lunar New Moon. On an otherwise moonless night, Blue Moon will present an interactive public art installation that will raise a moon into the sky at the DUMBO Archway in Brooklyn in response to fan retweets. When anyone 21 or older retweets @BlueMoonBrewCo, the moon installation will rise and Blue Moon Brewing Company will make a $5 donation to Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization dedicated to advancing the arts and arts education and home to the Public Art Network. The goal is to raise up to $10,000 on March 1, while raising the moon higher into the sky.

Held in conjunction with the official launch of the @BlueMoonBrewCo Twitter handle, the genesis of the installation is a celebration of public art and is symbolic of the important role fans have played in the success of Blue Moon Brewing Company.

The installation was built in collaboration with Chicago-based Johalla Projects and artist Heather Gabel. In addition to the “moon,” the one-night event will feature a large-scale projection of Heather Gabel’s artwork. A limited-edition screen print designed by Gabel will depict complementary imagery and will be offered free to visitors.

“I’ve always drawn inspiration from space and the vast cosmos. The moon’s cycles continually inform my approach to making art,” said artist Heather Gabel. “In the iconic DUMBO Archway, I have the opportunity to use animation and projection alongside the ‘moon’ to construct a dynamic atmosphere, a starlit ballroom, that encourages interaction and engages the viewer as an active participant.”

Upon viewing the installation on March 1, guests 21 and over can visit the Archway Café at the base of the Manhattan Bridge, adjacent to the plaza, from 6:00 p.m. until 10:00 p.m. EST. to watch the moon rise and enjoy bites and beverages. No tickets are required, admittance is based on capacity.

About Blue Moon Brewing Company
At Blue Moon Brewing Company, everything we do flows from our artistic approach to brewing. We craft our broad array of beers with flavorful ingredients for an inviting taste, perfect for enjoying the moment with friends. It’s been that way since we added our first flavorful twist back in 1995 in Denver, Colo., and that’s why we say our beer and everything we do is artfully crafted. More information is available at www.BlueMoonBrewingCompany.com.

About Americans for the Arts
Founded in 1960, Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America. From our offices in Washington, D.C. and New York City, we serve more than 150,000 members and stakeholders across the country each year. For over 50 years, Americans for the Arts has been dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating
opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Americans for the Arts is home to the Public Art Network (PAN). The only national network of its kind in the United States, PAN and its programs serve the diverse community of artists and administrators engaged in public art and efforts to further integrate art and design in our built environment. To learn more, visit us at www.AmericansForTheArts.org or www.americansforthearts.org/by-topic/public-art.

About Johalla Projects
Johalla Projects was established in the fall of 2009 by Anna Cerniglia as a venue for emerging and mid-career artists. Located in Chicago’s West Town neighborhood, Johalla Projects is a collective space collaborating with artists, writers and curators. In addition to presenting exhibitions in its gallery space, Johalla works to organize and execute public art projects in across the country. Every exhibition and project undergoes a thoughtful selection process, assuring that each show presented by Johalla Projects is comprised of the finest contemporary work. For more information, visit www.JohallaProjects.com

About Artist Heather Gabel
Heather Gabel was born in Windsor, Ontario in 1977. Gabel is moved to create visually fantastic situations that are not based in reality but, rather, that she has imagined. Her work is at once nostalgic and timeless, offering the viewer a unique glimpse into what was, what is, and what could be. Experienced in many mediums, she uses painting, collage, audio visuals and photography in a unique fashion to create iconic images that have a lasting visual impact on viewers.

For more information, please contact Anna Cerniglia at info@johallaprojects.com.

Share this:

Like this:

Stephen Eichhorn’s THE CLIMB/REALITY at the CTA Damen Blue Line Station

OCTOBER – NOVEMBER, 2013 CTA Damen Blue Line Station

Johalla Projects, in collaboration with Alderman Joe Moreno and the WPB SSA #33, is very excited to announce STEPHEN EICHHORN: THE CLIMB/REALITY, a public art installation at the Damen Blue Line Station.

Stephen Eichhorn’s process explores his theories about construction and the natural world. Intuitively piecing together found images of flowers and foliage, Eichhorn creates a uniquely hybrid vegetation that exists only within a work’s frame.

By placing these lush microenvironments in otherwise empty spaces of color and texture, Eichhorn isolates them as subjects. As a result, the architecture of each piece becomes more engaging and more dramatic. Furthermore, Eichhorn’s works – especially when reproduced in such large scale as seen in the station – transform into sculptures themselves, further abstracting the physicality of the layered materials and the intricacy of their arrangement.

In The Climb/Reality, Eichhorn considers new ideas about surface, structure, and spatial relationships while simultaneously remaining true to his characteristically complex methods of collaging and draping. The pieces balance between contemplative and combative, signifying an exciting departure from the cool beauty of earlier bodies of work made up entirely of more conventionally beautiful plant specimens.

Stephen Eichhorn (b. 1984) lives and works in Chicago, IL. In 2006, Eichhorn received his BFA from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. His work has been included in numerous national solo and group exhibitions, with highlights including Ebersmoore, Chicago (2012, 2011); the Elmhurst Art Museum, Elmhurst, IL (2012); Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN (2012); Bucket Rider Gallery, Chicago (2008); Josée Bienvenu Gallery, NY (2008); and Cairo, Seattle (2008).–Written by Tyler Blackwell

A special thanks goes to WPB SSA #33 for sponsoring this project.
Printed by Latitude Digital Lab on Hahnemühle Fine Art paper.

For more information about this project, please contact Johalla Projects at johallaprojects@gmail.com.

Like this:

Disappear Here: New Work by Heather Gabel & Matt Skiba

October 4 – October 25, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, October 4th from 7-10pm

Johalla Projects is pleased to announce Disappear Here, an exhibition of new work from artist Heather Gabel, in collaboration with longtime friend and Alkaline Trio front man Matt Skiba. The exhibition will feature mixed media collage and painting, as well as a short film produced and directed by Gabel and scored by Skiba.

The pair’s work, like their friendship, is divinely cohesive and seemingly created in tandem when, in actuality, the two live thousands of miles apart. Skiba’s contribution to the works on paper is reactionary to the mystical pretense of Gabel’s illusory imagery, while his accompaniment to the film is inspired solely by his internal deconstruction of a single photographic environment that transcends both space and time. In this sense, the resulting works are reflective and serene.

Disappear Here endeavors to exile the viewer to a meditative place of solitude that hangs heavy with a duality that is at once alienating and self-affirming. The pieces represent the genesis, completion, and infinite nature of a past, a present, and a future in full command of the power to continually re-manifest itself. The result is deliberate, impenetrable – a fortress of the self, strengthened by the alchemies of birth and death.

The exhibition will also feature limited edition prints and apparel available for purchase. A supplementary event – our next iteration of POCKET CHANGE: A PUBLIC ARTS FUNDRAISING SERIES – will be held at at THE EMPTY BOTTLE on Saturday, October 5th.

For more information about this exhibition or about POCKET CHANGE, please contact Anna Cerniglia at johallaprojects@gmail.com

Like this:

Johalla Projects is very excited to announce Ryan Duggan: Low-Dose No-Doz, its second solo exhibition with Chicago-based artist Ryan Duggan. The exhibition will run from SEPTEMBER 6 to SEPTEMBER 30. Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, September 6 from 7-10pm.

Ryan Duggan’s work is keenly informed by the oddity of the everyday. Often fueled by his appreciation of signage and text, Duggan utilizes advertising strategies to subvert a traditionally informative message into something more intriguing or surprising. In this sense, Duggan challenges notions of purpose in visual communication and suggests an alternative way of “looking.”

For Low-Dose No-Doz, Duggan’s new works are simple yet bold, employing imagery and language that weave a common thread of confusion, depravity, and disinterest. In some moments, his seemingly spliced phrases tinker on the edge of absurdity, forcing the viewer to create his or her own unreasonable narrative in response. This approach, paired with Duggan’s stylistic typographical choices, hearkens to artists like Ed Ruscha, whose characteristic deadpan representations mask more complex issues or ideas.

In a more physical context, Duggan’s methods of making become highly visible – balancing between production-based sign making, traditional approaches to painting, and transformed found objects or sculptures. This melding of materials further disassociates the immediacy of advertisement-based language from its conventional form while simultaneously projecting a bizarre sense of nostalgia for a less-complicated era of communication.

RYAN DUGGAN is an artist and printmaker working in Chicago, Illinois. His work spans a number of mediums but carries a common tonality and visual aesthetic culled from American advertising, design, and signage. Duggan studied advertising in college and currently splits his time between making art and screen-printing under the moniker Drug Factory Press.

For more information, please contact Anna Cerniglia at johallaprojects@gmail.com.

CHICAGO — Johalla Projects is pleased to introduce POCKET CHANGE, an ongoing fundraising event series designed to benefit public arts projects in various neighborhoods of Chicago. The launch event at The Empty Bottle will take place this Saturday, August 24th from 6-8:30PM at the Empty Bottle at 1035 North Western Avenue. The event will enable street artist Don’t Fret to produce a neighborhood mural. $5 admission includes a PBR and DJ sets by local slow jams party Slo ‘Mo.

It’s no surprise funding is a constant concern for many artists and public art projects. POCKET CHANGE aims to raise money for public arts projects in Chicago in a more accessible setting infused with entertainment and visual art.Each event at The Empty Bottle will cost $5 for admission, includes a complimentary PBR, and features a music performance. All money collected at the door will go directly to the event’s featured artist to produce a public art piece in Chicago.

The next events in the series will take place October 5th (featuring artists Heather Gabel and Matt Skiba) and November 16th (featuring artist Ryan Duggan).Johalla Projects is grateful to have support from its partners in this venture, including Empty Bottle, PBR, Alderman Joe Moreno, and Slo ‘Mo.

Johalla Projects is very pleased to announce Shannon, a group exhibition of recent graduates of the Yale School of the Art MFA Photography Program. Museum of Contemporary Photography Assistant Curator Allison Grant will contribute an essay to mark the exhibition. Shannon will run from JULY 12 to JULY 28. Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, July 12 from 7-10pm.

Shannon is a collective consciousness, muse, and unifier, a mutual creation between these artists who have profoundly impacted one another. It is a way to express their individual work while, at the same time, find a commonality within their varied experiences as students and colleagues. During rigorous and constant evaluation, the artists attempt to find new ways of working through a diverse range of contemporary issues in photographic seeing.

In honor of Shannon, the artists are presenting their work out of the original context of their theses, interwoven to allow for new relationships and conversations to emerge.

The exhibition examines themes such as the necessity and risk of being in one’s own work, the transformation of the street and exploration of landscape through fantastical and optical manipulations, and the intervention of performance in both staged and nonfiction through improvisational methods of picture making.

Shannon is not necessarily a consequence or the result of their time together but rather the deep connection they all share despite their disparate approaches and practices. Shannon is this unique experience the artists leave behind as they pursue their own paths and voice.

Like this:

I Hear You Singing Through the Wires

NEW WORK BY JOSEPH RYNKIEWICZ

JUNE 7 – JULY 5, 2013

Opening Reception: Friday, June 7 from 7-10PM

Gallery Hours: By Appointment Only

Johalla Projects is pleased to announce I Hear You Singing Through the Wires, its first solo exhibition with Chicago artist Joseph Rynkiewicz. The exhibition will run from JUNE 7 toJULY 5. Please join us for an opening reception on Friday, June 7 from 7-10 p.m.

Joseph Rynkiewicz’s work is rooted in the imprint that every action leaves behind. Whether a dent in the cosmos or our consciousness, his work links time and place, people and nature and leaves behind questions—not as confusion but rather, meditation.

I Hear You Singing Through the Wires reveals how performance, whether seen or unseen, continues to ripple through time and space. This metaphysical inertia is represented with beautiful simplicity in the crux of the exhibition, “Arrangement for Endlessness.” In reality, this telephone pole is a finite object installed within Johalla Projects, but the illusion, accomplished with mirrors, is that it extends infinitely in both directions. The viewer in Chicago is invited to imagine this expanding telephone pole generates a bridge from us to the other side of the world, which is literally somewhere in the Indian Ocean.

The works in this show are each icons of consequence. We are given a single snapshot of time and asked to conceptualize what came before and what may happen after and how all these moments are connected in some way. Like “Arrangement for Endlessness,” each of the works in this exhibition provide a meditation on the invisible network that reverberates through the universe, binding everything.

JOSEPH RYNKIEWICZ lives and works in Chicago. His work was recently shown at ACRE Projects and New Capital. He holds a BFA in photography from Columbia College and although he doesn’t really make photographs anymore, the degree helped land him a pretty great job. He loves whiskey and cats. Not always together. I Hear You Singing Through the Wires is also supported by a Community Arts Assistance Program (CAAP) grant from the City of Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and Illinois Arts Council, a state agency.

-Written by Whitney Stoepel

For more information, please contact Anna Cerniglia at johallaprojects@gmail.com.